Redlands Strada Rossa Ride

Thursday, April 30, 2015

We are strong believers in Bicycle Tourism. While Redlands is not a rural community, like many small towns, it does rely heavily on retail sales and individuals spending discretionary money in the city. Along these lines, Redlands is positioning itself to be a destination city. This obviously supports local businesses which employ residents as well as providing sales tax to fund much of the civic budget. Given that, we would like to see bicycle tourism added to the consideration as a viable economic benefit to our community!

With this in mind, we wanted to see what kind of a financial benefit a one day cycling event would have on our community. A survey was sent out to all the registered participants of the 2015 Redlands Strada Rossa. Our goal was to find out approximately how much money was spent IN Redlands specifically, but also to highlight the amount of money that recreational cyclists spend in general.

We also used this opportunity to seek out suggestions for improving the event, as well as to find out the things that really worked on this one!

Lastly, we asked how many respondents would come back to Redlands for another bicycle-related event.

We compiled the responses from the survey, and came up with the following results:

The 55 respondents spent a total of $11,060 specifically related to the RSR. That could include anything from nutrition, tires, a bicycle frame, gas and lodging, etc.

That $11,060 total averages to $201 per respondent!

We went on to ask how much of that was spent specifically in the City of Redlands. The total which included food ($1,462), lodging ($605) and the catch-all "other" category ($2288) adds up to $4,355.

That in turn averages to $79.18 being spent per person in Redlands.

Nearly 40% of total expenditures were made in Redlands.

From these responses, we can safely state that the Redlands Strada Rossa, a one-day event that charged a minimal amount to participate ($25 per person) and was produced with volunteer time, money and generosity, brought $4,355 into our community!

If we take a moment and extrapolate that average to all registered participants, we can project what the overall impact was. There were 135 people who registered and paid for the ride. If each one of them spent that average of $79.18 in Redlands, a total of $10,689 came into our community!

Imagine that. A one day, recreational event bringing in over $10,000 to a town. There is an incentive to have one monthly! Not only does recreational bike riding encourage trail procurement and use, it benefits both local businesses and the larger community financially.

Finally, to tie this all together, please notice question five on the survey. We asked if the respondents plan to return to Redlands for future rides. An amazing 100% of them said yes! And you can be sure they will spend some money here when they do!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

We've put together a quick (two minute???) survey that has been emailed to RSR 2015 participants. We're trying to get some data on the economic benefits an event like this brings to a community. We're also soliciting suggestions for ways to improve the event for next year, so feel free to (gently) let us know what we can work on!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

How to express how incredibly pleased I/we are with how this turned out this last Saturday. An amazing response from participants who travelled here, voted with their wallets, and then rode this amazing ride! I'm totally biased but I think the route was fantastic. 60+ miles of great roads and trails in a compact geographical area, connected together to make one (or two!) great rides!

And the volunteers that put the ride together, staffed the SAG stops, hosted the party, provided the beer (THANKS Ritual & Escape) and just plain ol' made this thing happen. The praise goes to the riders and community in Redlands and the IE that supported this, talked it up, and put their $$$ and time into it. Can't thank any of you enough!

I want to encourage everyone to friend/like the IEBA on fb as well as post their pictures, video, and any feedback they have for us. While the RSR was in part a fundraiser for the IEBA, it is much more-so a form of advocacy in and of itself. The more people know this quality riding is here, the more bikes that are out in the public, the more the cities and communities out here will realize how important infrastructure and access is. So while you were having fun on a great ride, you were also participating in bike advocacy! Way to multi-task out there, people!

We plan on doing this again next year, so be sure to talk it up, as it is 100% a word of mouth sort of an event!

And finally, below is a video from one of the participants James W. It's a blast to watch and re-live some of the riding from Saturday! Check it out!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

As you're looking at the routes, keep in mind that there are LOTS of ways to get around the eastern end of the San Bernardino Valley. Out of towners or locals that aren't familiar with the trails on this route are highly encouraged to look it over and wrap their head around the different portions of it. To assist with that, shown below are two of the options available on the route to get you back to Redlands if things just aren't working out as planned.

Sand Canyon: The two routes share the same course up to mile 17/27.5km. At that point, the 100 km continues east into Yucaipa proper, while the 50 heads back west to Redlands. The 100km riders who are looking for an early exit can simply follow the 50km route at this point.

Bryant St: If you want something a little bit more, and are feeling decent but not quite good enough to finish, hang in there till the next alt-option at the 22.3 mile/36km mark. The 100km route at this point heads east on Fir Ave (and you should stay on it!!!), but if you want to go north on Bryant, and then over to Grape St, you'll still be able to do all the Crafton Hills portion. That keeps you on the rest of the route and lets you finish with everyone else. That is highly encouraged!

There are lots of other ways to bail if you have to, but these are the two big options to help you finish the ride, rather than just getting back to your car. The goal is to have fun, see some new territory, and enjoy the day. If you're miserable during the ride, you're not doing any of the above. Get back to Redlands and have lunch already!!!

The Redlands Bike BBQ is hosting Saturday morning's send off, and last-minute maintenance can be had there. The BBBQ is a great asset to the community, and is the local source of all-volunteer and donation based bicycle assistance.

If you happen to have any bikes, parts, components, tools or miscellaneous gathering dust in the garage, please consider donating them to the BBBQ. Any and all help is appreciated!!!